


Woman's Work

by atheilen



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Canon-Typical Ableism, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Soldiers, Fem!Aral Vorkosigan, Gen, Rule 63, The Dismemberment of Mad Emperor Yuri, Time Period: Yuri Vorbarra's Civil War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 00:28:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3629871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atheilen/pseuds/atheilen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Guarding the genome is woman's work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Woman's Work

Ezar looked at her a long moment before nodding, as though satisfied with what he saw. You’ll do, his eyes seemed to say, though she knew not for what. “The honour of the first cut is yours, Lady Aral,” he said, “should you wish it.”

They’d started treating her with that Vorish courtesy again, ever since the battle ended; Aral was sharp enough to notice it; perceptive enough to understand what the speculative weight of the new Emperor’s gaze on her meant, and the snarling anger of Da’s glare whenever he looked at her. She tried not to mind it much. She was Vor, and would serve. In whatever way necessary.

She was proud when her voice didn’t shake. “Thank you, Sire.” Though she didn’t want to thank him, not really. Aral had killed before, of course, since they’d lost Mama and Selig and Katya, and Da dragged them all to war, it seemed as though that was all she had ever done. But this was different. This was…

 _Necessary,_ said a calm voice in her head that sounded a lot like Mama’s. _So this will never happen again._

Da snorted. “Sire, surely…”  
“You would deny your daughter her rightful vengeance, Vorkosigan?” asked the Emperor. “This is not the first cut she will have made in my service. Is it, my lady?”

“No, Sire,” she said, truthfully. A little girl, after all, could slip into places men couldn’t, and Da had learned fighting the Seedies to make use of what he had, even if his resources were as inadequate as Aral clearly was. Every time Piotr Vorkosigan looked at her she saw it, the accusing hurt: why aren’t you graceful Katya, or brilliant Selig? Just unlovely, angry Aral, whom Da had never cared to understand. Last-born and least-loved.

But she was a Vorkosigan, and even the least of the Vorkosigans would not flinch from her duty.

She forced herself to look at the Emperor…no, at Yuri, Mad Yuri, who was not her liege at all, so this wasn’t treason…as she stepped forward.

He saw her hesitation and pounced on it. “Strike, girl,” he said. “If you dare while you wear my uniform. _My_ uniform on a child.” A useless girl-child, he did not have to say.

Aral had always liked soldiers, before. She would watch them, sometimes draw them when she could, enjoying especially the clean lines of the uniform. She thought wearing it must make you feel safe. Invulnerable, like nothing could or should touch you. When they’d gone on the run and she had nothing else to wear but that, she’d learned how paltry that was. Now she mostly just wore the cadet’s uniform because it was convenient to move in.

She had to say something, had to rebuke him somehow. Katya would have, but Katya was brave. Aral was not, but she was all that was left.

“You killed all the children in that room,” she said. Her voice sounded strained, tired, and she realized how absurd that was even as she said it. What would that even mean, to a man such as this? If the furious, bound creature in front of her even qualified as a man, anymore.

She wanted this done. She wanted it to be over. No, she wanted the massacre never to have happened so she could go back to being Count Vorkosigan's gawky, quiet younger daughter.

She could do only the first.

She took her Vor’femme knife from her sleeve, knowing it to be the right weapon. Guarding the genome was woman’s work, after all, and this she could do, for Mother and for Katya whom he’d killed.  
She felt nothing when she made her cut, just like Mama had said was right. _If you ever have to use this,_ she said, _remember you’re not killing a child. You’re fixing an aberration._

Aral Vorkosigan couldn’t fix this. But she did her duty all the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Girl!Aral Vorkosigan grabbed me and refused to let go. She probably should have had a different name, but I couldn't make it work...Aral is Aral.


End file.
